Ventriloquist hand operated puppet



April 5, 1960 D. W. ELLETT VENTRILOQUIST HAND OPERATED PUPPET Filed March 13, 1957 M'fness.

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INVENTOR. Duane If Ellen".

ATTORNEY out of sight of the audience.

2,931,137 VENTREUQITIST HAND OPERATED PUPPET Duane W. Ellett, Des Moines, Iowa Application March 13, 1957, Serial No. 645,836

3 Claims. (Cl. 46-154) This invention relates to a puppet and more particularly to one that may be manually operated to give the illusion of speech.

The use of puppets extends back into ancient times. The most common types are controlled by strings and sticks in the hands of an operator located above and In rather recent times, puppets have been used by 'ventriloquists, Generally such puppets have a hinged lower jaw operated by the ventriloquist to give the appearance of talking. How ever, they are not entirely life like because when a person speaks, it is mainly lip movement and not the movement of the jaws like chewing of food. Obviously, a deaf lip reader reads lips and not the movement of the aw.

Therefore, one of the principal objects of my invention is to provide a puppet having a movable lower lip, thereby giving a convincing illusion of talking.

More specifically the object of this invention is to provide a puppet with fixed jaws and with only the under lip movable by the operator.

A still further object of my invention is to provide a puppet having a movable lip unit that is directly moved by the finger of the operator and without use of strings, hinges and like. j

A still further object of this invention is to provide'a finger operated talking puppet that automatically stabilizes itself onto the hand of the operator.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a puppet that is economical in manufacture, durable in use and refined in appearance.

These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

My invention consists in the construction, arrangements, and combination, of the various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained as hereinafter more fully set forth, specifically pointed out in my claims, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a front view of a puppet using my invention,

Fig. 2 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of the head of the puppet taken on line 22 of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is a bottom view of the head portion of the puppet taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 1,

Fig. 4 is a sectional view of the device taken on line 44 of Fig. 2 and more fully illustrates the construction of the puppet head, and

Fig. 5 is a plan view of the movable tongue and lip portion.

In the drawings I have used the numeral to designate the body of the puppet comprising the usual dress, arms and like, as shown in Fig. 1. The numeral 11 generally designates the head of the puppet normally extending out of the collar of the dress of the body portion. This head may be of any suitable character, and the facial features shown in the drawings are merely illustrative. Extending upwardly through the neck 12 and head portion is an inverted well 13. Between this well and the mouth area of the head is a wall 14 of substantial thickness as shown in Fig. 2. The numeral 15 designates a passageway rectangular in cross section and extending from the well 13 through the wall 14 and exiting directly below the upper lip 16 of the head portion. This pasageway extends downwardly and forwardly relative to the longitudinal axis of the head portion. Below the exit opening of the pasageway 15 there is no lower lip on the head portion. The numeral 17 designates a tongue rectangular in cross section and slidably extending through the pasageway 15. On the top lower end of this tongue 17 is the lower lip portion 18 as 7 shown in Fig. 5. The numeral 19 designates a finger ring secured to the rear end of the tongue 17 and inside the well of the head as shown in Fig. 4. The diameter of this ring is greater than that of the width of thepassageway 15 and therefore also acts as a stop for limiting the downward sliding movement of the tongue in the passageway. The length of the tongue is such that when it is in its lowest slidable position, the lip 18 will be also in a lowered position relative to the upper lip and the mouth of the puppet will appear to be in an open position as shown by broken lines in Fig. 2. In operation the hand of the operator is inserted upwardly inside the puppet body and the index finger 25 is extended into the Well and through the ring 19 as shown by the broken lines in Fig. 2. Thus, when the finger is straightened,

the ring will be pulled upwardly and backwardly, thereby moving the tongue upwardly and backwardly and closing the lips of the puppet. Merely by bending or crooking the finger the ring will be moved forwardly and downwardly, thereby opening the lips of the puppet. The action is simple and almost automatic. In viewing the puppet from the front, the lips will be observed to move in a most life like manner. In order to give greater contrast, the lip on the tongue should be of a difiere'nt color (or at least a different color density) than that of the color on the top of the tongue. This contrast is shown in Fig. 5.

To keep the head from undesirable movement each 5 time the finger is moved to work the lower lip, the

secured to the head. To accomplish this I have inserted a collar plug 30 in the neck portion as shown in Fig. 4. In order to eliminate any danger of getting the finger stuck in the collar opening and for comfort, I have this collar of rubber or like resilient material. With this collar plug the puppet is stabilized onto the hand of the user. So that the finger will have sufficient room to operate, the thickness of this collar plug is greatest in that of its area adjacent the tongue as shown in Fig. 3.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of my talking hand operated puppet without departing from the real spirit and purpose of my invention, and it is my intention to cover by my claims, any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may be reasonably included within their scope.

I claim:

1. In a puppet, a hollow head portion, a downwardly extending confining guide passageway rectangular in cross section in said head terminating in an open mouth opening, an elongated member rectangular in cross section slidably extending through said passageway, a ring means inside said hollow head and secured to said elongated member; said ring adapted to embrace the finger of a hand, and a lower lip portion on the lower end of said elongated member.

2. In a puppet, a hollow head and neck portion, a collar plug in said neck portion, a downwardly extend- 3 ing confining guide passageway in said head terminating in an open mouth opening, an elongated member slidably extending through said passageway, a ring means inside said hollow head and secured to said elongated member; said ring adapted to embrace the finger of a hand, and a lower lip portion on the lower end of said elongated member.

3. In a puppet, a hollow head and neck portion, a collar plug of resilient material in said neck portion, a downwardly extending confining guide passageway in said head terminating in an open mouth opening, an elongated member slidably extending through said passageway, a ring means inside said hollow head and secured to said elongated member; said ring adapted to embrace the finger of a hand, and a lower lip portion on the lower end of said elongated member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,648,411 Lernieux Nov. 8, 1927 2,433,555 Hulse Dec. 30, 1947 2,729,024 Guttmann Jan. 3, 1956 2,751,708 Plummet June 26, 1956 10 2,801,495 Enison Aug. 6, 1957 .FOREIGN PATENTS 388,564- France Aug. 17, 1908 701,441 Germany Jan. 16, 1941 

